Rating: 
Summary: Learning as a child might. Entertaining, but difficult.
Review: After working initially with the book, I listened to the tapes for many hours while commuting. Somethings have "stuck", but most have not. I feel that this would be an excellent program to take up with a partner or in a class, and would love to hear from someone who would like to practice with a beginner via email. I found "Italian by Association" by Michael Grunberg to be far more effective for vocabulary building.
Rating: 
Summary: Berlitz makes better products
Review: I bought this set before going to Italy for the summer. Since it had 4cd's, 2 books and a dictionary, I assumed that it would be a great help to me in learning some Italian. But it wasn't. The presentation is not particularly orderly or succinct, and an entire section early on is devoted to how to say absurdly complicated things like "I'm married, but my partner has just left me with our children". And what I really wanted to learn was simply how to buy tickets, order food, and hold brief, polite conversations.If you'd like to get started learning Italian, I'd recommend Berlitz's "Rush Hour Italian" which does a good job of going over the basics and helping you remember them.
Rating:
Summary: Berlitz makes better products
Review: I bought this set before going to Italy for the summer. Since it had 4cd's, 2 books and a dictionary, I assumed that it would be a great help to me in learning some Italian. But it wasn't. The presentation is not particularly orderly or succinct, and an entire section early on is devoted to how to say absurdly complicated things like "I'm married, but my partner has just left me with our children". And what I really wanted to learn was simply how to buy tickets, order food, and hold brief, polite conversations. If you'd like to get started learning Italian, I'd recommend Berlitz's "Rush Hour Italian" which does a good job of going over the basics and helping you remember them.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Gradient levels
Review: I found this course to be wonderful. You have to be able to take an hour a day three days a week to do it but if you follow the instructions and pay attention it is very easy, you really begin to understand the Italian language. You definatley can't do it in the car but if you can take out the time to do it at home or preferably with a friend, it's very worth while
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing so far
Review: I'm only through the first of the three CD's, but so far I'm not impressed; I wish I'd bought their Phrase Book/CD instead... Unlike Berlitz's phrase books, which are information-rich, the first CD is largely filler, and only 60 minutes, so the three CD's should really have been at most two, and perhaps only one. It's also presented as being new (August 2002), but there's considerable emphasis on the Lira, and no mention of the Euro.
Rating:
Summary: Frustrating and disappointing
Review: I've been trying to use the tapes in the car, and now I'm giving up and getting my language instruction from another publisher. This is too confusing; it's like trying to be a detective while you learn to speak Italian. They use no English, and expect you to understand the words from context. I understood about 60 percent of it, and the rest I repeated like a parrot, while following it up, under my breath, with a frustrated, "Whatever that means!" I've picked out bits and pieces from the dictionary, etc., but why should I have to hunt them down?
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent! Easiest way to learn a language.
Review: I've wanted to learn Italian for years. These tapes made it easy and fun. They even helped me develop an Italian accent! This was much easier than learning French in school.
Rating:
Summary: Great for business traveler, less so for tourist
Review: This is a fun and interesting immersion course but be warned that it seems geared primarily for business travelers, as many of the "scenes" take place in an office environment. It's also a little outdated in that secretary Sandra uses a typewriter and her friend Mario is amazed that she can use a computer, which makes a lot of beeping noises like a cartoon Univac. It would be nice to not only learn how to think in Italian but to also find out how to negotiate for tickets and converse with people on the street for directions, restaurant recommendations, etc. I'm learning language structure but not much useful vocabulary.
Rating:
Summary: Great for business traveler, less so for tourist
Review: This is a fun and interesting immersion course but be warned that it seems geared primarily for business travelers, as many of the "scenes" take place in an office environment. It's also a little outdated in that secretary Sandra uses a typewriter and her friend Mario is amazed that she can use a computer, which makes a lot of beeping noises like a cartoon Univac. It would be nice to not only learn how to think in Italian but to also find out how to negotiate for tickets and converse with people on the street for directions, restaurant recommendations, etc. I'm learning language structure but not much useful vocabulary.
Rating:
Summary: Great for business traveler, less so for tourist
Review: This is a fun and interesting immersion course but be warned that it seems geared primarily for business travelers, as many of the "scenes" take place in an office environment. It's also a little outdated in that secretary Sandra uses a typewriter and her friend Mario is amazed that she can use a computer, which makes a lot of beeping noises like a cartoon Univac. It would be nice to not only learn how to think in Italian but to also find out how to negotiate for tickets and converse with people on the street for directions, restaurant recommendations, etc. I'm learning language structure but not much useful vocabulary.
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